Lord Langley Is Back in Town Read Free Page B

suggestion. Langley has simply been indisposed. And now he has come home.”
    The others nodded emphatically.
    “It is how she said,” Nanny Brigid agreed, gathering her dog to her ample bosom. “Langley is in London and I have it on the best authority.”
    Another round of agreement circled the room, and Minerva was at a loss as to how to argue with them in the face of their conviction that the Duchess of Hollindrake’s father was not only alive, but here in London.
    In her house.
    It was all so ridiculous. Too fabulous to believe. For if indeed Lord Langley was alive, wouldn’t his daughter, Felicity, be the best person to answer their questions?
    And more to the point, house them?
    “I would suggest,” Minerva began, waving a gracious hand toward the door, “that if you do indeed think Lord Langley is here in London, you seek him in the most likely of places, his daughter’s house. I am certain the Duchess of Hollindrake would be more than happy to accommodate your needs as well as discover the truth to this most vexing mystery.” She managed to say all this with a concerned air and a placid smile on her face, as if coaxing four madwomen off London Bridge. “I can even call a carriage to take you all—”
    “I will not be tossed out again just because you want to keep him to yourself!”
    “This is an outrage! I am cousin to the tsar! I will not be sent begging like some peasant!”
    “Nor I! This is an affront to my country!” Nanny Helga stomped her boot to the floor with a sharp resounding thud . Apparently the margrave hadn’t the lofty relations to fling about, but Minerva knew she didn’t want to be the catalyst of some foreign debacle that drew England into a war with a minor principality that most likely could only muster a single regiment.
    Then again, war could hardly be imminent. It would probably take the English army some time and effort to find Nanny Helga’s outraged populace.
    Minerva stole a glance over at her aunt. Really, now would be the time to help.
    Bedelia’s gaze rolled upward and her hands went up in defeat. There is no talking sense with these sorts .
    But Minerva wasn’t about to give in so easily. “I am simply asking you to go to Hollindrake House and—”
    “Whyever would we go back there?” Nanny Brigid asked.
    Nanny Tasha shook her head with an imperious air. “I will not be so insulted again. That awful man at the door”—Staines, the duke’s imperious butler, Minerva guessed—“refused me entrance. He said that the little duchess had gone into the country and would not return for a fortnight.”
    Minerva tamped down the desire to go over and strangle Staines. Wretched man!
    “But of course, Langley would come here,” Nanny Helga added.
    “Whyever would he come here?” Minerva dared to ask. For if she had been feigning a megrim before, one was really coming on now.
    Nanny Lucia snapped her fingers and one of her servants who had been hovering in the foyer came bustling in. The duchessa issued her order in brisk Italian, and the young man reached inside his coat and produced a packet of letters for his mistress. Nanny Tasha and Nanny Brigid did much the same, bringing out packets of letters, some tied with ribbons, others just a loose collection of missives. Each lady sorted through her papers and came up with a single letter, which they handed to their servants, who passed them on to Minerva.
    “You will find your answer there on the second page,” Nanny Lucia instructed, wiggling her fingers at the document.
    Minerva glanced down at the letters in her hand, all composed in the Duchess of Hollindrake’s familiar hand and written about a year earlier. She scanned the lines—bits of gossip, questions about fashions, and finally came to the one that stood out.
    That answered that very important question.
    Why this address?
I would be ever so grateful that if you hear word of my father, to direct him to return to London. And when he does, to take refuge in